A hedgehog is a small mammal best known for its quill-covered body and ability to roll into a ball. There are two different types of hedgehogs–the European and African. However, it is the African hedgehog which is kept as a domesticated pet. It is, in fact,illegal to own European hedgehogs in North America. The domesticated hedgehog is a smaller and much lighter colored version of its European cousin. These little guys also come from a hot, desert environment, whereas European Hedgehogs live in a temperate environment.

African hedgehogs, also known to some as African pygmy hedgehogs, are actually a cross between the Algerian and White-bellied species found in Northern parts of Africa. These hedgehogs have been brought over and bred to the point where they are considered domesticated pets. These animals are no longer considered “wild exotics”, but they are still considered an exotic pet.

Today’s African hedgehog is becoming a popular pet across Canada, the US, and some parts of Europe. They come in a wide range of colors (currently there are 91 colors recognized) and grow to be about the size of a guinea pig. Hedgehogs have a lifespan of anywhere from 3-7 years, with 4-5 years being the most common. They are nocturnal animals, meaning they are awake and active during the night.

Hedgehogs are very special animals and require a certain level of care. A hedgehog can make a wonderful pet, but they are not for everyone.

Consider the following before deciding to bring a hedgehog into your life:

Hedgehogs can live up to 7 years. Where will you be in 7 years? If you own your hedgehog while in college, can you still give them the proper care they need?

Hedgehogs must be housed in a minimum of 2 square feet. Do you have space in your home to fit this requirement? Remember, hedgehogs are nocturnal so they need a quiet place during the day to sleep and they need a place where their night activities won’t disturb anyone.

If your pet hedgehog becomes ill they must be taken to a licensed exotics vet. You need to find an exotics vet in your area with hedgehog experience before bringing home your new pet. Hedgehogs should really go to the vet once a year to get a checkup as well and this can range from $60-100 depending on the vet. If your hedgehog is a grumpy hedgehog, they may have to be anesthetized so a proper examination can be done.

Hedgehogs are not cuddly little lap fungus animals, they are more likely to run around and play on you than snuggle with you. However, there are a lot of hedgehogs that are content to fall asleep in your lap after a nice back rub or after wearing themselves out from play time. There are a few cases where a hedgehog will cuddle with you, but if you really want a cuddly animal, get a puppy.

Hedgehogs do not make good pets for small children. They may poke the child and scare them. Kids may also squeeze or hurt the hedgehog, resulting in a bite. A young child is better off with a different pet. A kid should also not be the main caretaker of the hedgehog, so consider this before buying your son/daughter a hedgehog.

Will you be able to keep the room your hedgehog is in at a steady 74-76 degrees F? Hedgehogs cannot tolerate a temperature below 70 degrees or they will go into an unhealthy state of hibernation.

Hedgehogs require a large wheel to run on. They WILL poop/pee on this wheel and you WILL have to clean it. This is usually a nightly cleaning, and the wheels can get rather nasty some nights.

Are you willing to spend time cleaning out your hedgehog’s cage at least once a week?

They are solitary animals, meaning you should keep one hedgehog per cage. If you want a clan of animals, try mice or rats.

Baby hedgehogs WILL poop/pee on you, and even adults have occasional “accidents”.

You will get poked and pricked by your hedgehog’s quills. When first getting your pet accustomed to you, you may have to deal will a prickly ball of quills. They can literally ball up to the point where you can’t tell where the head ends and the bottom begins. Even after your hedgehog has gotten to know you, they have days where they can fluff up at you or an unexpected noise. If this freaks you out too much, a hedgehog is DEFINITELY a bad choice of pet.

You may get a biter. Most hedgehogs don’t bite because they don’t feel the need (Read about above-mentioned quills), but there’s always the possibility.

Hedgehogs do need to be bathed and they need their toenails clipped. This isn’t always a problem, but with particularly stubborn hedgehogs, this can sometimes be a two person job.

If you feel you can handle all of this, then a hedgehog may be a good pet for you. Remember, these are only the negatives of owning a hedgehog, and if these are all okay with you then the positives will end up outweighing the negatives by a long shot.

Before you bring your hedgehog home you should make sure everything is set up in his cage–food, water, bedding, wheel, and hidey house. You should sleep in an old T-shirt for a few nights and put that in your hedgehog’s hidey house. That way they’ll be sleeping with your scent and getting used to your smell. Smell is everything to these critters, so this is a vital step of bonding between you and your hedgehog.

Now that you’ve brought him home, you’ve put him in his cage and let him get settled in. It’s very tempting to keep checking on him, but that’s the last thing he needs. You should leave your hedgehog alone for the first night or two so he gets accustomed to all the new smells and sounds. After that, you can begin the bonding process.

The first step is to bring your hedgehog out of his cage and into your lap. This is a LOT more intimidating than it sounds. Don’t be afraid of your hedgehog, even though he can be quite frightening! He will more than likely quill up and start hissing and popping at you. This is normal, it just means he’s scared, and with good reason! He’s just been brought to a new home and doesn’t know you or anyone else. Talk to him in a soft voice, keep telling him it’s okay and you won’t hurt him. Don’t make any “shh” noises though; your hedgehog may interpret them as another animal hissing at him. Once you’ve got your hedgehog in your lap, keep talking to him, and stroke him. If he’s in a tight ball, try gently rotating your fingers on the middle of his back. This usually will get them to unball. After a while your hedgehog should quiet down and stop hissing. Keep trying to get him to unball, but if this doesn’t work, put him back in his cage and leave him alone. This is a long process, usually taking about a week, but can sometimes last for a month or more. You should see progress with most hedgehogs over the course of a week. Just keep talking to them and petting them. Treats are a wonderful way to speed up the process. Bribery knows no shame here. Mealworms are a particular favorite of most hedgehogs. They learn to associate you with food, and end up unballing much quicker. The key word is patience. Everyone has to go through this as a hedgehog parent, so don’t get discouraged, it is possible to tame your hissing ball of quills! You may even get to a point where it’s impossible to get your hedgehog to ball up anymore, so don’t give up hope. Once you and your hedgehog have bonded, he can meet other people and bond with them too. All this hard work will result in a bonded and trusting pet that was well worth your time!

There are a variety of cages you can keep your hedgehog in–some of them simple, some of them elaborate. Just remember a hedgehog needs a MINIMUM of 2 square feet, bigger is better! Also, NO WIRE FLOORS! Wire floors can result in broken legs and toes. Wood should also not be used in the cage as wood can harbor mites. Wood also soaks in urine which can lead to a nasty smell. Second levels are okay in some cases, as long as the entire upper level is encased with a wall and the ramp leading up is at a low angle.

This is the most inexpensive way to house a hedgehog. A large Sterlite bin, 90 gallon or bigger, can make a great cage. Lids aren’t always necessary, but if used, the top must be replaced with a screen of some sort for ventilation. The sides can also be cut out and replaced with screening to allow more airflow.

These are just regular fish aquariums which can be found just about anywhere. If used, the minimum size is 20 gallons, and even that’s small. Really I wouldn’t recommend using an aquarium, there are much better options out there.

“What do I feed a hedgehog?” This is a simple topic that is often made difficult by the wide variety of opinions that different hedgehog owners have. In the wild, hedgehogs are insectivores, meaning they eat insects. Insects to a hedgehog are rather like meat to a dog, so consider a hedgehog a “meat eater” of sorts.

Several people will tell you that you feed a hedgehog… hedgehog food. This is NOT a good idea. Most, if not all, commercial hedgehog diets are composed of filler ingredients. Fillers are something added to a pet food to boost the protein and fat percentage of the food, and often are used to make the food taste better. Fillers have no real nutritional value. Corn is the most common filler found in pet food. It’s inexpensive, easy to obtain, and tastes sweet to your pets. Some other fillers are: wheat flour, soy flour, corn gluten meal, ground rice and meat and bone meal. These are often used in generic pet foods. The exact same holds true for hedgehog foods. Their diet should NOT be made up of corn and other fillers. This is unhealthy. Corn is HIGHLY indigestible to hedgehogs, who should be getting meat as their top ingredients in pet foods.

Since hedgehog food doesn’t meet nutritional needs, hedgehog vets and owners have found that a high quality cat food works best. Just remember these rules when looking for a brand to feed your pet:

The first two ingredients should be named meat. This means turkey, chicken, duck, etc. Named meal is also acceptable. No by-products of any sort should be found here

The top five ingredients are what really go into your pet food. No fillers, no by-products, no “meat and bone meal”, no “animal digest”, nothing that sounds questionable.

Protein content should be 30% or more, fat content should be no more than 10%

No BHA, BHT, or Ethoxyquin. These are chemical preservatives that are known to promote cancer.

Vitakraft hedgehog food is a NO! This is the most infamous brand out there, it’s everything you don’t want in a hedgehog diet. It usually goes by the name “Vitacrap”.

There are several cat foods recommended by hedgehog owners:

Chicken Noodle Soup for the Cat Lover’s Soul

Felidea

Innova

Wellness

Royal Canin Slim 37 or 38

Blue Buffalo

Wysong

Solid Gold

All of these should be the “light” version for the lowest amount of fat. Too much fat in your hedgehogs diet can be hard on their liver, possibly resulting in Fatty Liver Disease.

Since none of these foods has been proven to perfectly satisfy your hedgehog’s nutritional needs, it is recommended that a mix of 2 or more foods is fed. The most commonly suggested brands are Chicken Noodle Soup and Royal Canin Slim. It is also suggested that small amounts of Grape Nuts cereal or a bran cereal of sorts be added to the mix for extra fiber. A pinch of Missing Link, a vitamin supplement, can be given as well a few times a week if desired, though this is not necessary. Food should always be left in the bowl in case your hedgehog gets hungry during the day and wants something to snack on. Any uneaten food should be thrown out every night. Most hedgehogs will eat around 2-3 tablespoons in a night, though some eat more and some eat less. You’ll discover how much your hedgehog eats after a while. If there’s a lot of food left over the next night, cut back on it. If there’s none or very little left, some more should be added. Keep trying this until you get just the right amount.

All staple foods should be kept in a low dish around 3 inches in diameter. Crocks and condiment bowls work well. Be wary of colored bowls from the Middle East as these sometimes have ink that can leak out. As a rule of thumb: if the bowl is human safe, then the bowl is probably hedgehog safe. Make sure the bowl has a heavy bottom so it can’t be tipped over. If you have a mischievous hedgehog that always tips over his bowl, you can glue it to a small tile and this should prevent anymore food tipping.

As with any animal, treats should be fed in moderation. That being said, a hedgehog’s favorite treat would be meal worms. These are actually a type of beetle larva that are commonly fed to some reptiles and fish. You can find them in pet stores or buy them in bulk online. Never buy superworms! Superworms are the large mealworms that stores sometimes sell. There have been stories of them biting the inside of a hedgehog’s mouth and throat, thereby injuring them.

Crickets are another favorite. Place a washcloth over your bathtub drain, add hedgehog and crickets and watch your little guy attack them. Their almost like mini tigers, stalking their pray and pouncing on it. Definitely worth a few dollars just to watch your hedgehog chow down on a meal they catch themselves.

Some other treats that can be fed are:

Peeled apples

Cooked chicken

Fresh banana

High quality baby food (meat flavors work best)

Cooked turkey

Chicken and turkey sticks for toddlers

Scrambled egg

Yogurt

Silk worms

Pears

Baked potatoe

Cooked carrots

Peas

Pumpkin

Squash

Peeled grapes

As you can see, there is a variety of foods you can feed as treats. Just use common sense, if you wouldn’t eat it, don’t give it to your hedgehog, and everything (with the exception of fruits) should be well cooked before given. Stay away from onions and citrus fruits; they are bad for your hedgehog.

Fresh water should be provided at ALL TIMES. There are two options when choosing a way to provide water for your hedgehog: a water bowl or a water bottle. Water bottle use is not recommended. Water bowls allow a much more natural drinking position while bottles force your hedgehog to strain their neck. Bottles can sometimes drip, causing a wet cage and hedgehog. Hedgehogs have also been known to chip teeth or cut their tongue on a water bottle spout. However, bowls can get bedding in them and need to be thoroughly washed every night. Bottles can go longer without washing, but I do not recommend going more than 2 or 3 nights. If you decide to use a bottle, make sure it hangs fairly low to the cage floor so your hedgehog can reach it. If you use a bowl, the same requirements for a food bowl go for this.

As with cages, there are several options for bedding. Corn cob should never be used as it can become stuck in your hedgehogs’ “private” parts. This applies to both males and females. Cedar and pine wood shavings should also never be used. Clay or clumping kitty litter is unacceptable for the same reason as corn cob. If ingested, kitty litter can compact in your hedgehog’s stomach, causing a serious health problem.

Litter is used for hedgehogs the same way it is for cats. Surprisingly, hedgehogs can be litter trained. Most will do their “business” under their wheel, so placing a shallow pan underneath and adding litter will prompt them to use that space. It’s also a good idea to use a different litter than bedding so your hedgehog will differentiate between where it is and isn’t okay to use the bathroom. Popular litter choices are paper towels, recycled paper bedding, and newspaper. Newspaper is only okay to use if the ink is vegetable based. Most inks today are vegetable based, but call your newspaper’s office to make sure.

These are regular wooden shavings that you see in hamster and gerbil cages. NEVER USE CEDAR OR PINE BEDDING! These woods have highly toxic phenols that over time can give your hedgehog, or other small pet for that matter, a respiratory disease. In some extreme cases, death can result. If you do use wood chips use aspen.

These are basically pieces of recycled paper, or compacted pieces of pulp that were too small to use by the manufacturing company. They are basically like wood bedding… but paper. Brands used are Yesterday’s News, Carefresh, and CellSorb.

These are pieces of fabric cut to fit your hedgehog’s cage. The most commonly used fabric is Vellux, which can be found in your local Wal Mart, Target, Costco, etc. They are in the blanket section. Corduroy and fleece can also be used. Other fabrics can be used, as long as there are no loose threads and the edges don’t fray. To clean them, you throw them in the wash and you’re ready to go.

Hedgehogs are active little critters, and they need toys to occupy their time with. There is an absolute must for all hedgehogs, which is a wheel. These are like a hamster wheel, only bigger. The minimum diameter is 11 inches. All wheels must have a solid running surface, and no spokes to get caught in. Hedgehogs can really get going on these things; they will run up to 3 miles in a night! However, they will also poop and pee on their wheel as they run. In their mind, they are running away form their waste, so it is perfectly normal for them to do this. In fact, if you get a hedgehog, expect them to, because I have yet to hear of a hedgehog that doesn’t poop or pee on their wheel during their nightly runs. That said, here are a few other accessories and toys your hedgehog will enjoy:

Hedgehogs love having places to run to and hide in. At least one hidey house is necessary for your hedgehog. Large Pigloos, plastic igloos, are a favorite among owners. This is where your hedgehog will sleep during the day. It is also a good idea to place a strip of fabric inside the hiding spaces. This gives your hedgehog something to sleep under or curl up with. Just make sure that the fabric has no frayed edges and no loose threads that can wrap around your hedgehog’s limbs.

Several hedgehogs love these. They will crawl over them and tug them around. Some will even “parent” them, and treat them like a young hedgehog. Just make sure that there are no loose threads or open spaces where your hedgehog can get to the stuffing. If ingested, the stuffing can cause internal damage.

These are by far not your only options for toys, they are simply suggestions. Look around your house and look at things that might make a good toy. As long as it doesn’t pose a threat to your hedgehog’s health, go ahead and try it out, you may find a toy your pet loves!

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